Tag: aaron levin

Let the tendrils of nuclear dust settle and submit our ears to the altar of magnetic tape. With ceremonial guile, consciousness coalesces unto blown-out rhythmania as Petra Glynt’s grand summoning fills the void with circuitous distortion. Drum-dance into euphoria. The emergent fractals will guide us into the inevitable Griptopia.

Since Marie stepped up as Executive Director of our shadow-lizard government Wyrd Arts Initiatives, we’ve experienced hockey stick growth. Here are some stats:

– We have 200 volunteers across Canada.
– 48% of our volunteers are women.
– Our content is now bilingual (thanks to our army of volunteer translators).
– We’ve doubled our publishing schedule.
– We’ve increased our revenue (through grants) by infinity (there is no known real number whose multiplication by 0 will get you $60,000).

With our explosive growth and nationally-distributed team of fringe enthusiasts, we’ve had to reshape the way we work.

1. How do we manage content from submission through assignment, translation, proofing, and finally publishing?
2. How do we ensure our volunteers and writers are engaged and have a meaningful experience with Weird Canada?
3. How do we ensure our writers actually listen to the music being submitted?
4. How do we solve all of the above while retaining our identity as an organization dedicated to encouraging, documenting, and connecting creative expression?

We’ve come a long way from e-mail insanity. Marie has implemented a number of systems that we cannot live without. Our amazing team has adopted all of them with enthusiasm.

We tasked volunteer and illustrator Keyu Shane Song with an impossible mission: capture, in one massive infographic, the way we work, from creative expression to final publication.

Within the driving recesses of phased cosmique and isochronous italia resides the hypnotic gnarl of Great Marble. Isomorphic to a free group of Italo Psych-Rock, both “What You Need” and “In The Air” conjure droning free-radicals in a miasma of commanding telepathy; multivariate headscapes within the unified cosmos of fringe. Seven inches of grippable polyvinyl. Shred.

Montreal’s tropical haze is deepening into a thick, morning dew of bleary-eyed cruise control. Freelove Fenner’s treatise on angular beach rock is a colloquy to the interconnectedness of lysergic pop moves; hip-swayed freedom laced with sandy yayo and lisps wet with Carlos Rossi. An album set for the nether-moods of freebased menageries. Grip status: affirmative.

1. Non-Profit Status

We are now, officially, a non-profit. Thanks to the hard work of Marie Lef, we’ve incorporated Wyrd Arts Initiatives, an umbrella organization / shadow-lizard-chud-government that will operate, support, and strong-arm Weird Canada into progressive submission. Go Marie!!

2. French Language Translation

The hours spent running our content through Google Translator are now over… sort of! We have our first, official translator. Vincent Rondeau has been helping us translate current (and older) content. You’ll see the “english/francais” tabs on new posts. We’re really excited about this. If you have any interest in supporting Vincent’s translational efforts, please see http://weirdcanada.com/volunteering. Thanks Vincent!!

(alas, no translator will suffer Levin’s schedule of writing said posts at 2am the night before)

3. New Theme

Over the weekend, Jenny Kapichen helped us migrate from our ancient (2008 BC) theme to something more modern. With this new theme in place we’ll be launching a few new features that should make the site nice. We might even put Manitoba on the map. Maybe. High-five Jenny!!

Strange sounds upon strangewinds emerge from a newly born Steeltown oasis. The strangled snare of gnarled guitars harken upon the nethersteps of Haligonia, but it’s the hooded nihilism of WTCHS’ droning vocals that yield unlimited satisfaction. Hope comes in a multitude of flavour. Hand-stamped package complete with 6-minute tape-only drone-out. Grip sicc widdit.

In conjunction with Pop Montreal 2012 and the third annual Journée des bons voisins event, Weird Canada is excited to present a free outdoor show on Sunday, Sept. 23! To celebrate World Car Free Week, the street of Saint Viateur (between Jeanne Mance and Saint Urbain) will transform into a pedestrian zone closed to east-west vehicular traffic from 11 am to 7 pm.

The musical line-up curated by Weird Canada will include the following artists:

Other activities include Puces Pop taking place simultaneously within St Michael’s church, Naada Yoga giving a class in the street (on a bed of sod) from 12 pm to 1:30 pm, bike repair workshops, and more all-ages fun from the YMCA du Parc. Hope to see you there!

Sometimes it’s just the feeling that perseveres. Not the delicate soundscape nor the sparing metaphor; just a pervasive memory lingering; echoes and ambers from the fires of pop and catch. “Black Horse” is a rare breed of languid summer burners and ethereal dissonance, capturing a bleary, pitch-shifted vision into one of the most enduring songs of the season. Bad Friend provides a welcomed balance to “Black Horse”‘s minor-key nostalgia with the title track “Bad Friend”: a distorted cruise through granular addiction and classic 90s jammery. An unsurprising favorite at the HQ. Grip+++.